The invention is predicated upon my research-based discovery that certain known physical complaints, maladies and other physical conditions can be treated in a manner not previously contemplated. These complaints/physical conditions are briefly discussed immediately below. The invention whereby they are treated is set forth thereafter.
A significant number of people, some researchers put the figure as high as 25%, suffer from a complaint variously called Myofascial Pain Dysfunction Syndrome, or Temporo Mandibular Joint (TMJ) disease. While the exact cause of this complaint (for convenience, hereafter simply called TMJ), is not fully known, and is in fact much in dispute, the consensus is that psychological stress factors associated with living in the 20th Century are at least partially to blame. Researchers generally agree that many painful conditions of the head and neck joint systems can be attributed to derangement of the TMJ.
Previous methods of treating TMJ have generally involved the use of splint therapy (using plastics as a material base). While a certain measure of success has been achieved, the results, overall, have been less than satisfactory.
Tooth crowding, as it is simply called in the dental profession, is a prime example of a less than satisfactory physical condition. Almost all cases of tooth crowding are caused by insufficient space in the bones of the jaw to accommodate the teeth. Procedures and devices to correct this condition, involving treatment of the jaw bone by orthopaedic appliances, are of course known. Again however, the condition remains a considerable cause of concern.
My invention is directed towards a method of treatment whereby the foregoing complaints/conditions are overcome, or at least substantially alleviated.
In one aspect, the invention provides a method of treatment whereby a device is positioned in the mouth of a patient which, when so positioned, serves to maintain the upper and lower teeth of the patient in a spaced apart, substantially, pressure-free, class 1 relationship. The device is then retained within the mouth of the patient for a predetermined period of time, for at least a portion of which the patient is at rest. The condition of rest may be established by positive external steps, or naturally. Other method aspects of the invention will appear hereafter.
The expression "the patient is at rest" is meant to indicate that, at a time of rest, the patient is wearing the device passively, i.e., without exerting thereon any positive chewing or other pressure. A patient at rest is best illustrated by a person asleep. However, the expression is not necessarily so confined. In like fashion, the aforementioned "predetermined period of time" is frequently, but not necessarily, equatable to a period in which the wearer is asleep.
In a further aspect, the invention provides a device for carrying out the method as above defined. The device is adapted to be comfortably positioned within the mouth of a patient to be treated by the method of the invention. The device, which is typically of a pharmaceutically acceptable non-irritant material and is usually of one piece construction, is provided with means which fit between the upper and lower teeth and function to keep them separated. As an uncomfortably fitting device would be deleterious to the performance of the method of the invention (which requires the upper and lower teeth to be maintained in a naturally spaced apart class 1 relationship), the separation of the upper and lower teeth is achieved without force on either the upper or lower jaw.
The device of the invention is made of a flexible, resilient material such as rubber. It includes upper and lower compartments shaped and sized to receive the upper and lower sets of teeth. Each compartment includes a plurality of prongs or fingers which project into the compartment from its bounding walls so as to resiliently engage the wearer's teeth. Gradual adjustment of the orientation of the teeth can be achieved by shortening or removing prongs on the walls of the compartments towards which the teeth are to move.